1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to the field of software-based methods and systems to provide a secure user interface on multiple and diverse electronic computing devices with a customized and secure dashboard feature
2. Description of the Related Art
Advancements in computing and telecommunications rapidly develop new and improved configurations, products and services that businesses struggle to integrate into their operations. In the case of software products and systems, accounting software, customer relationship, supply chain management, and records management are examples of such products that undergo frequent and rapid change. Often businesses and other enterprises must rewrite software and periodically change device user interfaces to integrate such advancements and improvements. Typically IT (Information Technology) departments are responsible to accommodate such enterprise demands. The limited resources of IT departments are frequently overwhelmed by such demands which results in inefficiency and delays in utilizing such improvements. Further, the development of new communication protocols and systems, known as social networks have significant impact on the contemporary culture of telecommunication which enterprises are seeking to integrate into their particular business practices. Examples of such social networks include the services provided by Twitter and Facebook. Blogs and computer based ‘chat rooms’ are further examples of social network communications.
The difficulties in enterprises' abilities to seamlessly integrate separate software systems from multiple developers and their vendor partners onto single user interfaces is a function in part of the culture of software system development. Vendors compete with one another to provide sole sourcing of integrated software platforms to enterprise customers. It is counterintuitive for such vendors to permit competitors to integrate or interchange portions of their software products with other vendor products because it decreases revenue opportunities for particular vendors if they introduce such competing products to their enterprise customers and prospects. The difficulty for enterprises is that they often choose software products from a single vendor that collectivity may not be ‘best in class’ for all of an enterprise's software and information management needs. Further, data management among diversely originated software may be incompatible for an enterprise that must share data among diverse software products. Again, an enterprise may have to undertake additional and substantial software code development to reconcile such diverse software operating systems.
Therefore, a first object of the present invention is to provide a uniform user interface system capable of accessing current and future ‘best in class’ software solutions that are operationally optimal to an enterprise.
Social networks involve open, spontaneous, multiparty communications that sometimes conflict with enterprises' needs for secure and confidential communications. Enterprise users of such social networks are better enabled if the social networks can be conveniently accessed within a common user interface. Likewise access to multiple enterprise software services within a common user interface enhances productivity because users do not have to enter and exit software silos each with different sign-on protocols.
Therefore, a second object of the invention is provide a security system and method that both simplifies user interface access to secure software systems while permitting social network systems access that do not compromise secure and proprietary computer and communication activities of the enterprise.
The user interface of the current invention provides for novel development of creative processes both within an enterprise and between the enterprise and external communities via telecommunications and computer mediated developments. This process is sometimes referred to as ‘ideation’. These interactions are likely to identify creative opportunities, stimulate and implement development and result in novel and useful inventions or similarly proprietary assets.
Therefore, an additional object of the present invention is to provide computer mediated means to undertake such creative opportunities through secure disclosure and computer mediated development where property rights are secured to the collaborators prior to implementation of the creative opportunity.
In the prior art, the difficulties of enterprises to integrate separate software systems from multiple developers and their vendor partners onto single user interfaces is a function was well known. Due to the prevailing culture of software system development, prior art solutions relied on vertical, horizontal of layered integrations of single vendor source software. Single vendor software refers to source code and other software developed under a common proprietary scheme wherein individual software professionals combine and create software utilities that is written and licensed exclusively through the control and direction of owner of a specific vendor enterprise. Further, such prior art solutions have often relied in part on operations limited to particular hardware and data communications equipment which has limited the utility of the prior art to enterprises seeking such utilities.
In the prior art, multiple vendors of single vendor software have existed and provided separate software solutions. It is well known that vendors compete with one another to provide sole sourcing of integrated software platforms to enterprise customers. It is counterintuitive for such vendors to permit competing vendors to integrate portions of their respective software products with the specific vendor's products because it decreases revenue opportunities for each separate vendors if they introduce such competing products to their enterprise customers and prospects. The difficulty for enterprises is that they often choose software products from a single vendor that collectively may not be ‘best in class’ for all of an enterprise's software and information management needs. Alternatively, while such prior art solutions may be satisfactory to an enterprise's requirements at the time of installation, such solutions tend to become obsolete due to evolution of the enterprise's business activities or the development of new software based utilities that are incompatible with the previously installed software utilities. Further, data management among diversely originated software may be incompatible for an enterprise that must share data among diverse software products. Again, an enterprise may have to undertake additional and substantial software code development to reconcile such diverse software operating systems and applications. The present invention overcomes these problems recognized in the prior art through novel use of software platforms that are sourced to and operate through a cloud computing environment. Further, the present invention provides a novel method to operate concurrently with existing installed software utilities of an enterprise while extending the enterprise's software capabilities through cloud computing based software utilities. Since certain cloud based utilities provide for shared software applications and social media utilities, the present invention provides a novel and broadly based utility to maintain and secure proprietary enterprise data and systems through a secure system of operation and data management without loss of utility of such previously mentioned utilities.